La Nouvelle Heloise"
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center 1977 The Pursuit of Virtue: A Study of Order in "La Nouvelle Heloise" Jeanne Thomas Fuchs The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4281 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependant upon die quality of the original submitted. 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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St. John's Road, Tyler’s Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 8HR 77-32,029 FUCHS, Jeanne Thomas, 1937* THE PURSUIT OF VIRTUE: A STUDY OF ORDER IN LA NOUVELLE HELOISE. City University of New York, Ph.D., 1977 Literature, Romance University Microfilms InternationalAnn ,Arbor, Michigan 4S106 © COPYRIGHT BY JEANNE THOMAS FUCHS 1977 PLEASE NOTE: Several pages have light and indistinct print. This is the original copy photo in the best way possible. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS INTERNATIONAL THE PURSUIT OP VIRTUE A STUDY OP ORDER IN LA NOUVELLE HELOISE fey JEANNE THOMAS PUCHS A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in French in partial fulfillment of the reouirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of Hew York 1977 3 This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in French in satisfaction of the dissertation renuirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. [Signature] a n date Gha irman of Examining Committee [Signature] fyh W 7 date ( iff ic e r [Signature] [Signature] Supervisory Committee The City University d'f New York FOR ROBERT MICHEL celui qui m*anime et m' 6claire 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing this dissertation has been an adventure that was at once arduous, stimulating and rather hypnotic. I am not sure that I have absorbed all that I have learned dur ing this experience, but I am certain about the guidance, support and encouragement that I received along the way. To Professor Madeleine Morris, who has been my mentor in this undertaking, I owe a debt that cannot be measured. My interest in Rousseau and his unique novel are due to her spirited presentation of them in her classes. A lady of im peccable taste and scholarship and a superior human being, Professor Morris has furnished me with an example of excel lence that I hope to be able to emulate. I am indebted to Professor J. Robert Loy for his stimu lating commentaries and his critical acumen which caused me to reshape many of my ideas and which I believe have added depth to this study. Professor Mary Ann Caws has been an unparalleled guide in matters of presentation and style. Her rigorous remarks combined with her contagious enthusiasm aided me in sharpen ing my often hazy concepts. Professor Henri Peyre has generously given many hours of his invaluable time to reading the manuscript and to offer ing a number of pertinent suggestions. His warm support of this project from the outset has been a source of inspira tion to me. All of the above professors have impressed me deeply— their prompt reading and return of the chapters to me furnished me with the momentum that I needed to expedite my work. I learned the meaning of "dialogue" from them. My thanks also go to Kay Guidone who typed the manu script, to Margaret Masche for her special assistance and to Lee and Kyle, my sons, for their sweet endurance. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction........................................ 8 Chapter I Overture................................. 27 Chapter II Exile................................... 59 Chapter III Marriage...............................86 Chapter IV Temptation.............................119 Chapter V Renunciation............................155 Chapter VI Death.................................. 174 Conclusion........................................ 208 Bibliography...................................... 217 LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS* Chart Book One............................. ...,31 Graph Book Two................................. 62 Chart Book Three................................ 89 Chart Book Pour................................121 Chart Book Five................................157 Chart Book Six................................ 177 *A11 charts illustrate the movement of the letters in each book Df the novel. 8 INTRODUCTION Jean-Jacques Rousseau's immense epistolary novel, Julie ou la Nouvelle H£loise, was the best seller of the second half of the eighteenth century. Prom the time it appeared in January 1761 to 1800, there were seventy-two separate edi tions of the work.1. As Daniel Mornet points out in his criti cal edition of La Nouvelle H|lo5se, although the tendency at. mid-century was to write short novels, and even short stories, to replace the tomes written in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the public avidly read Rousseau's de- liberately long work. Louis-S£bastien Mercier recounts that Paris booksellers rented various parts of the novel for twelve sous per half hour.^ Given the length of each section, one can only conclude that the eighteenth century Parisians were pro digiously rapid readers. Stories about the novel's appeal multiplied almost as quickly as its editions: people stayed up all night reading it, forgetting dinner parties, balls, and any number of important engagements.^ One gentleman delayed reading the last letter from Wolmar to Saint-Preux for three days because he could not bear the "news" and the recapitu- lation of the heroine's death. Anyone who had ever been in love was devastated by Julie. The library at Neuch&tel has preserved sacks of letters written to Rousseau by readers con£ 6 vulsed with despair. Young girls, nuns, married women, bud ding Lotharios and men of the world all believed that Rousseau had intended his novel for them, and had recounted their in dividual struggles. In effect, Jean-Jacaues had uncovered a common bond which united shop girls and duchesses, merchants and marquis: the voluptuous delight of passion, despair and renunciation. Despite its unprecedented popular acclaim, La Nouvelle H6lolse did not receive a similar reception in literary cir cles. In particular, Rousseau's former closest associates, the philoso-ph.es. led by Voltaire, proved merciless in their 9 7 criticism.1 His "friends," especially Diderot, believed that Rousseau had deserted them by leaving Paris to live in the country, and they felt betrayed by many of the ideas ex pressed in the novel itself, and even more so by those in its author's Lettre a d'Alembert (1758). While their philo sophical and esthetic reservations about the work's merit must be taken seriously, evidence exists that they were jeal- Q ous of the hermit's success. Diderot published his Eloge de Richardson the same year; Grimm attacked Rousseau's novel in his Correspondence litt€raire. but most virulent of all were the letters of the Marquis Xim&ies, actually written by q Voltaire, lampooning the book's style, its author and char acters, with even a few gratuitous pot shots at Jean-Jacques' father.10 Even Grimm and Fr£ron condemned Voltaire's vitu perative remarks in the "Xim&nes" letters.11 Actually, in his attempts to crush Rousseau's creation, Voltaire-Xim^nes dis plays the same poor taste that he accuses Rousseau of having in La Nouvelle H^lolse. With regard to Julie and Saint-Preux he says, "Jamais catin ne pfr&cha plus, et jamais valet subomeur de filles ne fut plus philosophe." As for Wolmar, he calls him a drunk and adds, "II 6tait trSs content du 12 tonneau quoiau'un autre 1' eftt perc6." Voltaire, like most of the literary set, stubbornly refused to see any merit in La Nouvelle H^loise or its originality. Ironically, the novel remains one of the major literary landmarks in French letters. Just as, more than a century before, Corneille's Le Cid (also accompanied by a celebrated literary battle), had permanently changed the course of French theater, so La Nouvelle H^loise marks a watershed point for the novel.